Greatest Bits: Star Wars Fan Films Expand Our Geeky Galaxy

Even the epic menagerie of alien scum in the Mos Eisley Cantina seems trivial compared to the wild variety of Star Wars fan films. From Minecraft to Lego bricks, there's seemingly no end to the creative ways filmmakers have paid tribute to the ultimate cinematic sci-fi universe.
Here are some of the most amazing Star Wars fan films on the internet.
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Jedi Kittens

Cats and lightsabers — really, what more is there to say? After Zach King, a Biola University film student who runs tutorial website Final Cut King, rescued two young felines from the pound, he successfully combined two of the internet's favorite topics to create "Jedi Kittens."

The Star Wars Zone

A remix of Star Wars footage and audio from The Twilight Zone episode "It's a Good Life," this video quite accurately begs the question: Is Luke Skywalker actually a child monster named Anthony Fremont who "has the ability to command anything he wants simply by thought"?

'The Unconscious Sith'

When Christian White saw his father's Star Wars fan film, he wanted to star in his own. "My son is autistic so we couldn't film in the traditional way, getting multiple takes and coverage from a variety of angles," said Christian's father, Adam White. "So we came up with the idea of the comic book (we have a lot of Star Wars comics) where we could jump from panel to panel, and we wouldn't need sequential action. This allowed us to have my son play in front of a green screen with little specific action required. He was very excited when it all came together and he got to see himself with lightsaber." The result: Minor masterpiece "The Unconscious Sith."

Lego Star Wars: Death Star Shenanigans

With a point-and-shoot camera, iMovie and three weeks of meticulous stop-motion animation, Gary Ridge, 29, of Galway, Ireland, lego-fied the capture and rescue of Princess Leia for "Lego Star Wars: Death Star Shenanigans."

'Minecraft - Star Wars - Battle for Hoth'

Minecraft-er extraordinaire "ParadiseDecay," who in an earlier Death Star video used more than 4 million blocks to re-create Star Wars' planet-killing space weapon, revisited George Lucas' sci-fi world late last year for "Minecraft - Star Wars - Battle for Hoth."
"This film was a lot more complicated and time-consuming as I had to match laser fire I used on the set with actual laser fire from the soundtrack," the YouTube filmmaker said. "Again, this level of detail is not realized by the public and it took many, many weeks just to get the final sequences."

Star Wars Uncut

An interactive remake spearheaded by Casey Pugh, Star Wars Uncut took crowdsourcing to Jedi proportions. To pull off the Emmy-winning collaborative effort, A New Hope was divided into 15-second increments. Then fan filmmakers from around the world were assigned scenes to re-create in their own way.

Star Wars Kid

Predecessor to the Concrete Hustle and countless other lightsaber-duel re-enactments, the Star Wars Kid might just be the keystone of the Star Wars fan film canon. After 7 years and 27 million views on YouTube, it's still hilarious. And if you haven't seen it, you might not have been paying proper attention to the internet.